Social media has become one of the most popular ways Gen-Z workers share information and tips regarding employment. Recently, a TikTok video by Avni Barman revealed as simple trick she incorporated in her job that has led her to be given a pay rise of $40,000 (£31,000). This technique she coined as “Lazy Girl Strategy”.
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“Lazy Girl Strategy” TikTok Video
The TikToker under the account name of ‘yourtechgirly’ opened the video by saying, “I was probably one of the literal worst employees of all time, but I still got a $40,000 pay bump because I did this one thing right.”
She goes on to explain that because she felt she had not been the best employee, she then went on to document every single task she has done in her role. This involved bullet points of projects she has done and screenshots of Slack messages she has sent.
In her words, she believed that documenting these things has led her to have a collection of “tangible and quantifiable” metrics. These metrics were then used to prove her value for the company and were able to bring her a pay rise.
“The problem is that the people who have the power to give you a promotion aren’t the people you work with on a daily basis or who can vouch for you,” Barman further discussed.
“However, documenting your work with screenshots of conversations can show you things like, ‘Oh, look, I saved this team member like three hours in their day, which cost X amount of money.’”
“The best way to quantify large impact beyond just your main projects that you’re assigned to that are basically your roles and responsibilities [is] to show that you went above and beyond and went outside your scope is taking all the little micro-actions and adding up the total impact of what that is.”
In short, she secured that raise by leveraging all the things she has done through documentation and presenting them in alignment with the value she has brought to the company. She also acknowledged that asking for a raise can be difficult since they will need to be accompanied by reasons, and this was the easiest way to do so.
Responses to the Video
As many have turned to social media for discourse on employment, including pay rises, this video resonated with hundreds of thousands of viewers. Many have then shared their thoughts on the method based on their personal experiences.
A commenter said, “Girl this isn’t lazy this is providing value as an employee.”
“My coworker got promoted bc she took her Slack messages answering my questions and called it ‘mentoring, ” commented another. Avni responded, “That is very real! This how people get promoted to managers so it works for sure.”
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“Keeping a brag sheet is key… I just wrote my annual review yesterday and was panicking til I opened that sheet and was reminded of everything I do/did,” said another person on TikTok.
An individual also added, “This is so helpful. I did my boss’ job for an entire year, he was let go but I didn’t get promoted, need to document all my work!”
However, some viewers have doubts about the method.
A user shared in a comment, “I used to document everything and no bonus. when I quit I ‘earned’ only money of untaken vacations and a nervous breakdown to heal.”
“Yes you get handed 15-20 accounts from your coworkers monthly and save the company time but all we can give you is 1,700 annual bonus,” another user said.